


Fool Me series

by tetsubinatu



Category: Merlin (BBC) RPF
Genre: Angst, M/M, RPF, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-07
Updated: 2011-01-07
Packaged: 2017-10-14 12:09:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/149128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tetsubinatu/pseuds/tetsubinatu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for a kink meme prompt: After five seasons when the TV show ends Colin drops Bradley and Bradley realises that Colin was only ever close to him because it was good for their dynamic on the show. Up to the author how far this false friendship went. Ambitious Colin goes far.</p><p>Originally this was just an angsty snippet, but 2 more parts brought a happier resolution.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fool Me Once

Bradley's frozen, staring at the TV screen. It's lucky he's alone - both his flatmates are mad tennis fans, and they've been at Wimbledon all week - because his face, he knows, shows _everything_ in that moment of icy realisation.

There is Colin, laughing coyly up at his new co-star, as they witter on about something in the Video Diaries for Afterburn.

Afterburn was created for Colin after Merlin ended. It began with a buzz and the ratings look better every week. Bradley was glad for Colin, if a bit jealous. He's had a few parts since Merlin and he's making good money out of Japanese advertisements but nothing like a hit series. He's barely seen Colin, but they've texted a few times and Bradley _understood_ that Colin was busy, was trying to get his new show up and running, was bearing the whole weight of a new show on those bony shoulders.

Bradley pulls his phone out and flips through his messages. The last one from Colin was a month ago - _Sry cant make it. Have fun_. He goes back further, and every terse rejection looks less and less like 'too busy' and more and more like 'fuck off loser'.

On the screen Colin's costar says, "We're good mates and that's part of what makes Afterburn such a successful show; it's like working with a family."

 _Oh you idiot!_ Bradley thinks, sinking deep into his couch, and only half of the scalding rush of scorn is for the smiling face on the screen. _Oh you poor sodding fool..._


	2. Fool Me Twice

"The last BBC show you were a regular on was Merlin," The male co-host says, all blond hair and grin. "You must be hoping for another hit like that one."

"Of course," Bradley nods. "That was a really great start for my career and I learned so much from Tony and Richard over those five years."

"It finished about four or five years ago, didn't it?" the female host adds.

"End of 2012," Bradley interjects.

"So do you still see much of the cast from that time?" she finishes.

"A bit," Bradley says slowly. "I worked with Tony on Devil's Due, which was a lot of fun. We fell back into that father/son dynamic, which was really great."

And reassuring. Bradley had begun to doubt everything about his relationships with the Merlin cast by that time, but Tony's genuine pleasure in seeing him had helped to put it all in perspective.

"I have lunch with Katie quite often - she's a social butterfly, that girl," he adds, " And I saw Richard Wilson at the BAFTAs only a short time ago. I haven't laughed so much in months. If anyone is wondering if Richard Wilson still has it," he adds, looking directly at the camera, "I am here to tell you that Richard Wilson still _has it_." He grins at the memory.

"And Colin Morgan," she presses.

"Colin is such a workaholic," he says lightly, "I don't think anyone who isn't on set with him ever gets to see him! No, I did see him recently at the Gala. He's not changed."

"But this new project of yours is an ensemble piece," she continues, and he takes a deep breath and thinks not of Colin, still slightly scruffy and too thin in whatever suit his latest costume director dug up for him to wear to the Gala, but of Andi and Jane and Michael who deserve for him to pimp the hell out of their new show.

"It's gonna be great," he says eagerly. "It's a fabulous cast and an amazing concept..."

* * *

His sister rings that evening. "Saw your show today," she says cheerfully.

"And?"

"Good job. Somewhere along the way you learned tact, brother dearest."

He swallows hard, grateful for all the things she isn't saying.

"Not too obvious?"

"Not at all. I thought you did a great job."

"Thanks, kid."

"Meh," she says. "Not so much of the kid. Torquay for Christmas?"

When he hangs up he thinks of the things she didn't say: about how he gave up drinking after the fourth time he rang her and swore for twenty minutes about Colin's perfidy and then threw up in his bed; about his 3am confession of the handjobs he and Colin exchanged now and then, 'just to keep us sane, eh?'; about the job he lost because he stormed out when the director wouldn't shut up about his chemistry with Colin on Merlin. Bradley has a new contract now and the kid deserves a really good present this year. He'll give it some thought.

He's not a baby any more, and this new show is his chance to move on, to give the public a new character associated with his face so that the wags can stop with the wizard jokes. He sets his jaw firmly and goes to wash up.

Tomorrow he has another talk show to charm and he needs his beauty sleep.


	3. Fool Me Again

It's been ten fucking years since Colin Morgan had a hand down his pants, but as Bradley's head falls back against the wall it could be 2012 again right now. The long, talented fingers on his cock could never be mistaken for anyone else, even with all the handjobs he's had in the intervening years. His own hand strokes slow and sure along Colin's shaft, remembering the way.

"Colin," he sighs into his clenched fist, and Colin looks at him through lush, unchanged lashes. The lines at the corners of his eyes have deepened, the only sign that time has moved on. At the other end of the row of stalls someone flushes and Colin's hand pauses briefly, but resumes immediately.

"Missed yer so much, Bradley," comes the soft rumble under Bradley's ear, muffled by his shoulder. "Missed yer every day."

Bradley stills and Colin's muscles go rigid against him, presumably replaying the words he just said.

"You fucking liar!" Bradley hisses. He wrenches himself away, the burning pain in his gut raging as fierce as the day he realised his own folly. Colin takes a step back until he is pressed against the door, one hand fumbling for the latch as his other reluctantly releases Bradley's cock.

"You _left me_ , you bastard," Bradley chokes out. "You used me and fucked me over and you left me." He can't get out of the fucking toilet stall - they're jammed in together and he wants to punch Colin, who has no _right_ to look like that - no right at all.

"It was..." Colin fumbles, "It wasn't like tha'."

"I was there, _Col_ in!" Bradley says. "I know what it was fucking like!" And somehow between Colin's fumbling at the lock and his own rage he has managed to wrench open the door and stumble out into the long tiled loo. He makes it half-way to the exit before he remembers to wash his hands, the right one still damp with Colin's sweat and pre-cum.

It's a mistake; Colin catches him up - and god only knows who is in the stalls, who is hearing this... this belated lovers' quarrel. Bradley has kept his image pretty straight over the years, and Colin has never come out either although Bradley is pretty sure he knows half a dozen members of different casts and crews he's worked with who've had the Colin Experience.

"Just forget it," he says as Colin stops about two feet away and stares at him. "I got over it years ago. Too much red wine tonight, that's all." His stare at the other man is as flat as he can make it, all his defenses back in place, and before Colin can say more than his name he has switched off the tap and exited the loo.

It takes Bradley ten minutes to locate his agent and his date for the night, making his excuses to both of them before he leaves the party. He isn't expecting to find Colin Morgan on his doorstep when he gets home.

It's a better place to fight than the public loos, he'll give it that.

"What do you want?" he sighs, but he unlocks the door and lets Colin in, and that says it all, really. Some people you really don't get over. Some people have the power to fuck you over again and again, as often as they want to.

Colin Morgan, in his home, looking like he belongs. Bradley's going to have to move house because he'll never be able to lose the image.

"I used you and fucked you over?" Colin says, quiet-like.

Bradley can't believe what he is hearing. "What would you call it, Morgan?" he asks. "One moment I'm your best friend, your hand-job buddy and then it's Goodbye Bradley Fuck Off Now! Do you know it took me eight months to figure out that you never called me back and never ever turned up to anything we organised? Eight months! How fucking stupid was I?"

"I meant to," Colin protested, "I was just busy..."

"Yeah," Bradley says, cold. "Busy. Because I wasn't convenient any more, was I? Too much fucking trouble to pick up a phone or take a train twenty minutes to meet at the pub."

Colin's face crumples, and he's always had the gift of breaking hearts with that face. Bradley's gut twists reluctantly and he grits his teeth. The bastard isn't going to turn this on _him_!

"No Bradley," Colin whispers. "I was just... I was afraid. There was so much... people were sayin' all this stuff about my future in the business and Sarah said I needed to look straight or my career'd go down the tubes..."

Bradley's temper is rising again. "It's not as though you had to marry me, you idiot, just... I thought we were at least _friends_!"

"I _couldn't_ ," Colin says, still in that broken whisper. "You were... Bradley I wanted you _so much_! I wanted to fall into you and never come out. I wanted..." He broke off, his breathing ragged in the quiet room. "I wanted _everything_!"

Bradley stares at him, all the pieces falling into quite a different pattern now, clicking into...

God, Colin had been so _young_ ; the pressure on him had been relentless, and he had been so sweet, so willing, so _driven_. So damned young.

"You idiot," he says again, but the words have lost their edge. Colin is slumped against the wall, utterly wrecked.

"Are you drunk?" Bradley asks after a minute and Colin nods, looking up at him again.

"I'm so sorry, Bradley," he mumbles. "I was jus' so scared. You were..."

"Yeah," Bradley says, making up his mind. "Come on then. You can sleep in my bed tonight - no sex though. We'll talk in the morning." He puts out his hand.

The look Colin gives him is utter trust and love, and every last, failing defense that Bradley has against him gives way before it. Ten years of pain wash away, leaving him scoured of all but love.

"Come on, Colin," Bradley says, and Colin does.


End file.
